The mysterious fate of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi

Has he left Libya or is he panning to join one of Libya’s many governments?

After months of contradictory reports stating that the eldest son of former Libyan revolutionary leader Muammar Gaddafi had been released, today, the terrorist group that had been holding him hasconfirmedhis release.

According to the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Battalion, Saif al-Islam was released on Friday after six years of imprisonment. This comes as the Egyptian supported Libyan House of Representatives in Tobruk has offered a political amnesty to all prisoners being held in mainly western and central parts of Libya due to their associations with Gaddafi’s Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.

The main commander of the Libyan National Army which is based in Tobruk, Khalifa Haftar was once a decorated officer who served the Jamahiriya until falling out with Gaddafi in the late 1980s.

After months of disinformation, now that the world is confident that Saif al-Islam is finally free, the two biggest questions are, where is he and what role if any will he play in attempting to bring the failed Libyan state back together?

His whereabouts are currently unknown but there is an increasingly high probability that he has gone to regions near Tobruk close to the the Egyptian border. Of the many governments vying for legitimacy in Libya, the Tobruk government is clearly the one that would be the most sympathetic to Saif al-Islam.